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So I've bought Thinkpad Edge 14. A fine machine in many areas, BUT!
I hate its display. The things flickers! It's like having a CRT with too low frequency. If I wave my hand in front of it, I see the same strobo effect as with CRTs. What's going on?
Also, if I display a black screen (like the end of PPT presentation), when I return to desktop, the colors are washed out, as if my gamma settings were way off.
It gives me headaches. My eyes hurt. Is it just my display or do displays on this things generally suck?
Update: The thing is brand new and under warranty, so I'm not opening it. I'd just like to know if this is "by design" or is hardware really faulty.
Update: The more I investigate the matter, the more it seems it's simply "by design". The thing uses LED display, and wikipedia describes the problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlight#Flicker_due_to_backlight_dimming
It's VERY noticeable on Edge, I guess it uses way too low frequency, at least for my eyes. And that's not the only problem with Edge's display, for some reason individual pixels are visible on the screen. Many users report this issue.
So, my advice, stay away from the Edge if you appreciate your eyes.
It's not limited to the edge screens - I have a Thinkpad T420 with exactly the same issue. Unfortunately it seems lenovo use cheap displays, even in their mid-level machines. – UpTheCreek – 2013-05-31T10:15:49.603
BTW - as mentioned in the wikipedia article, one workaround is to turn up the screen brightness to near full - the PWM is only used to simulate a lower brightness, and is not active when at full brightness (try waving your hand in front of the screen at different brightnesses). – UpTheCreek – 2013-05-31T10:18:02.313